This may seem surprising. Sanders, an “independent” who caucuses with the Democrats, has occasionally spoken sense on immigration. He has openly identified the desire for cheap labor motivating the corporate push for more foreign guest workers, even in jobs like ski instructors or lifeguards that could easily be filled by American students. Sanders rails against stagnant wages for high-skilled workers, high unemployment for low-skilled workers (especially nonwhite Americans). He understands that, in his words, “If you need to workers in a certain area, you need to raise wages.”

Indeed, Numbers USA awards Sanders a relatively high “B+” rating for opposing “unnecessary worker visas” over the course of his career and an “A+” for his recent efforts to reduce the visa lottery.

But if the occasional piece of rhetoric about defending American workers was enough, then Jim Webb would be the leading presidential candidate for President. As with Webb, despite the occasional show of promise, Sanders is MIA when it comes to taking a principled stand against mass immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens—thus rendering the rest of his “pro-worker” platform irrelevant.

Of course, this kind of rhetoric may tempt some economic progressives who oppose immigration (they do exist) to support Sanders, despite his overall record, trusting him to put populism over identity politics. But the Vermont Senator has proven quite willing to surrender his principles to his ambition in the past, and he’s doing it again when it comes to seeking the nomination of a Democratic Party now defined by anti-white animus rather than any coherent economic program [Bernie Sanders is in with the enemy, some old allies say, by David Fahrenthold, Washington Post, July 25, 2015].

Sanders has also repeated the usual clichés about bringing illegals “out of the shadows,” called for a path to citizenship for illegals and demanded the “Republican majority in both the House and the Senate needs to let us debate and pass real immigration reform” [Where Bernie Sanders disappoints liberals, by Dan Merica, CNN, June 22, 2015].

But even as Sanders moved to guard his left flank on immigration, he was tripped up again by black protesters at the recent leftist Netroots Nation conference who interrupted his speech, leading to Sanders shouting them down. Significantly, after being accused of “talking down” to the activists who screamed at him, Sanders has begun incorporating their rhetoric, working “black lives matter” into his speeches and campaign propaganda [Netroots disruption energizes black activists, by Maya Park and Daniel Strauss, Politico, July 25, 2015].

Sanders is also campaigning on the apparently urgent need for America to “apologize” for slavery.

But this doesn’t mean Sanders is sunk. In contrast, it makes him a greater threat in the short term. As he continues to surge in the polls, Sanders may come to represent a more coherent form of “racial socialism” than even Barack Obama has represented, as he can promise an (unworkable) socialism that will undertake somehow deliver all things to all people.

Of course, the Republicans have an easy counter to all of this. The competing demands within Sanders’s political coalition are irreconcilable, His candidacy would be highly vulnerable to an enthusiastic pursuit of the white vote. The GOP in its implicit GAP mode could campaign against mass immigration and talk about its impact on wages, push back on multicultural extremism and stand for law and order, and paint Sanders as a flip-flopping champagne socialist more interested in appealing to fringe Leftist activists than helping American workers and families. Sanders’s record of hypocrisy when it comes to American workers would make him highly vulnerable to even a minimally competent campaign.

But if the GOP takes the white vote for granted, and if Hillary blows the Democratic nomination, that could open the door for the victory of an outright Socialist. It would be a catastrophe for the historic American nation and something patriots need to start worrying about.